With the ranger

I talked a little about the process I decided to use in my post "from suicide to jigsaw" how I was going to add color to my relief prints. The process works great and I'm really happy with the way the final images turn out too but I was still looking for a faster way to make my images. Using the jigsaw method, I could have all the various colors rolled up with ink and pieced back together in about 15-20 minutes. Doesn't seem too long except when you're trying to make an edition of ten, making the printing process 3-4 hours. At 2 a.m. I didn't want this to take this long, I was impatient and wanted to find another approach that might even still speed up the process.

That's when lightning struck.

"I've just had an apostrophe"

"I think you mean 'an epiphany' Smee" 

"Lightning has just struck my brain" 

"Well that must hurt" 

-Hook

(Such a great movie!) 

....back on track... I got this idea that maybe instead of cutting out all these little shapes I could just draw my image on a piece of plexiglass, paint the ink on plexiglass and run that through the press. Awesome! I'm sure this would save me so much more time because if the ink was fluid enough it would just brush on the plexiglass nice and easy and before long I would have another print done. So I went to work. 

With sharpie I drew my image on the plexiglass, I mixed all my ink colors and with different brushes I painted all the various areas I wanted color. Even though I thinned down the ink with a thinner it still wasn't as fluid as I hoped. I still took time to cover all the shapes with color. The other issue I didn't consider with this method was how more detailed I could get my shapes. My shapes are only so detailed when I have to cut them out with a pointy knife, but a sharpie I could get smaller shapes and more of them.

Painting my image this way took about 30-40 minutes per print. Hahaha so much for saving myself time... so I quickly got burnt out with this method and wished I had a print assistant to slave over this print instead of me. Any volunteers to print with me from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. every night? Payment would be in prints and pepsi, I cant really afford much more then that.

Even though it was a much longer process it didn't look to bad. It had a very painterly feel which was a nice effect.

Once all the carving was done I ran a test print to do a final check to make sure everything looked right. Then the more exciting part.... running a color test proof....

Nice. These print are much more dynamic and visually interesting then the black and white key block image. I'm really excited that the color is working out even though the printing process requires so much more time. It will be worth it seeing all 20 of my prints hanging in the Zion gallery space. 

Zion artist in residence

I have a neat opportunity taking place this year that carries into next year as well. Here at Southern Utah University where I attend college, there is a program designed for students called the "student artist in residence" in Zion National Park. Zion National Park hosts about 4 working artist throughout the year and then display their art in Zion's gallery space. But then once a year a student is chosen to take a week long residency in Zion. 

This year I was chosen to be the student artist in residence. I was really interested in perusing this opportunity for the experience and challenge. For the application process we had to create a proposal and submit some of our current artwork. My idea/proposal is "Get Connected." I want to illustrate ways people connect with nature, specifically in Zion National Park. In a way my idea is a play on words because in this technological time we all seemed to be connected to our technology and gadgets but less and less people are taking the time to connect with nature. So in my artwork I am going to depict people interacting and connecting with nature. I proposed to create about 30 images for my final show in March of 2015. My medium will be primarily relief printmaking. 

It has been a wonderful experience so far! Staring March 7 through March 16 I lived in Zion. 9 days of living in the national park, gathering inspiration and reconnecting myself with nature. I was able to live in the historical Grotto cabin in the middle of the park. It's was beautiful and more then I was expecting. In the mornings and afternoon the park was packed with people. That really helped me get a lot of pictures of people. But in the evenings, the parked emptied out and was really quiet. There were deer and other wild animals all around. We saw wild turkeys, mountain goats, lots of lizards and foxes. Being from the city I don't get to see very many of these animals. 

Now that I'm back in the studio, I'm working on getting my images composed and colors planned out so I can start carving. I have a few more weeks before I graduate and finish my BFA program, then I will be able to concentrate my full efforts on this project. 

Keep an eye out for more updates and progress on my Zion project!